Song of Solomon 4

“Behold, you are fair, my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove’s eyes behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats, going down from Mount Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep which have come up from the washing, every one of which bears twins, and none is barren among them. Your lips are like a strand of scarlet, and your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil are like a piece of pomegranate. Your neck is like the tower of David, built for an armory, on which hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.” Song of Solomon 4:1-4 (NKJV)

Really? Your hair is like a flock of goats? Your teeth are like shorn sheep after the washing and each one is present with its twin? (Something not everyone in Arkansas can brag about!) Your neck is like the tower of David, built for an armory?  I suppose these were the best pick-up lines of ancient Israel. But did they work? They absolutely worked because chapter 4 is when the talk moves to EROS love: passionate physical expression.

In chapters 1-3, we witness the verbal exchanges of two youngsters in love. But at the beginning of chapter 3, we are confronted with a fairly steamy dream sequence, the middle of which contains this famous exhortation:

“I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.” Song of Solomon 3:5 (NKJV)

I can’t recall how many times I’ve quoted this passage to my teenage kids! Dream all you want, but God has ordained certain acts for marriage.

So, we have the dream of the Shulamite girl (in chapter 3) searching the city at night.  

It ends with her depiction of Solomon riding atop the shoulders of his throne bearers. His bodyguards are experts at war and armed with their swords because it is night.  In this statement, we cannot ignore the bravery of a girl whose dreams take her in search of her boyfriend in the midst of the most dangerous conditions. By her description of Solomon, his perfumed couch, valiant entourage, and crown, we may be inclined to think her beloved is Solomon himself. But notice the Shulamite summons all the daughters of Jerusalem to go out and see Solomon while she searches for her beloved alone.  She is saying, in essence, “Ladies, King Solomon is gorgeous, rich and powerful…but I am my beloved’s.” (2:16; 6:3)  Her love is EXCLUSIVE with a sense of mutual ownership.  And so is her beloved’s love for her.    

They may have been dating for the first three chapters, but the dream sequence turns physical in chapter 4. A marriage has taken place. The exhortation to not “awaken love before its time” now echoes as, “I am so glad we did not awaken love before its time because this is awesome, to act on our passion without guilt or shame!” Their love is not only awakened, but (as is the case with healthy newlyweds) love has insomnia! Eros takes over. As one pastor put it, “Where in all of literature does one find a text so filled with eros, yet remain so moral?”